There’s no better way to kick off the New Year than doing something you love, and for me, that means grabbing my camera, which in this case was my iPhone, and heading out to take some photographs; and this January 1st did not disappoint with a stormy high tide.. How could I resist?
My wife Anne, who’s as much of a storm lover as I am, joined me to not only keep me company, but she also helped capture some behind-the-scenes footage, which added to the fun of the morning.
We headed down to The Cobb ( Lyme Regis) and straight away it was a WOW moment!
The waves were crashing hard against The Cobb sending water shooting high into the air like fireworks. The sound was thunderous, the kind of deep, powerful roar that makes you feel alive just being near it.
I knew where I wanted to head to … the only issue was getting there; the lower part of The Cobb to the side of the Aquarium. The problem here was that water was crashing and pouring over The Cobb wall into the Harbour like a giant Ice Bucket Challenge ( remember that??? ) , however I’ve learned my lesson and now travel with full wet weather kit in a bag in the boot of my car.
Still, even though I was weather-proofed it meant timing the run to perfection to avoid the weight of the water crashing down on me … which I’m rather proud to say I managed to avoid.
Weather like this always fills me with excitement BUT that said you do still need to have your wits about you. No photogbraph is worth putting yourself and others at risk. I never want to be THAT guy!
Once at the side of the aquarium I was able to photograph the small beach area behind it and still be safe, protected by a wall and railing. I managed to get the composition I wanted, grab some shots but then the wind seemed to pick up a bit more. So, I decided enough was enough and timed a run back to Anne ( who was near the RNLI Station ) without getting hit by any waves breaching The Cobb Walls.
Actually on this, I’d heard some time ago that waves come in 7s and it did see to be the case. Running there and back I initially counted 7 clear waves breaches and then ran and managed to avoid getting soaked so, clearly there’s some truth in it; if not and it was pure fluke, I’m getting an extra Lottery ticket this week 😃
As for my iPhone, I used the native 0.5 ( 14mm ) lens and the native Apple Camera App set to Apple ProRaw. The image was edited using Lightroom Mobile on my iPad Pro.
So now I’m up and running; first photograph and print of 2025 is ‘in the bag’ 😃
After walking around a bit more, grabbing some extra shots and some video footage, it was time for breakfast at our favourite spot … Town Mill Bakery.
So here we are in 2025. I’m now really looking foward to the coming months as I plan to be visiting some other coastal locations across Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Wales ( West and North ) … and my thoughts are that I’ll be doing this with my iPhone to push it that bit more and see what I can get with such minimal kit.
I’ll keep you posted.
Happy New Year!
